By Rodger Shanahan - ABC News
What lessons you draw from the political unrest we are observing in the Arab world depends to a large degree on where you stand.
In the West, the focus has been on the dissatisfaction of the Arab youth bulge, the power of social media to rally activists, the demands for personal and political freedom and the attraction of democratic choice. In essence, the events have strengthened the West's belief that individual political and social freedom and the free market have universal application.
Among the region's rulers however, different lessons are being taken away from these events.
The first is that economic dissatisfaction has played a part in at least some of the protests, so dissent can be headed off by the age-old tradition of buying off the population in return for political quiescence. Saudi Arabia did this by allocating $35 billion to the unemployed and first home buyers in February, and another $96 billion in March. The UAE gave the poorer northern Emirates $1.6 billion for infrastructure improvements in March.
Of course, when you are rich oil-exporting Gulf states, such measures are open to you. Syria increased pension payments, but the additional $10 million cost illustrated Syria's straitened financial situation and failed to satisfy the protesters.
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